In this delightful compendium on insomnia, 38 fine Filipino writers -- mostly young, many of them award-winning, a few writing from Montreal, San Francisco, Paris and Singapore, and all insomniacs--describe their struggles with this affliction in hilarious essays, poems and stories. They also divulge the countless remedies for sleep disorders that they have tried, or simply imagined, with wildly different results; and the things they do when all is lost and insomnia has won the night. The rollicking humor is interspersed with carefully researched, indubitably useful, sometimes astounding nuggets of information.

Established in 1927, the UP Writers Club has lived enough to see the University to its Centennial Year and also to produce many Philippine literary giants, including eight National Artists for Literature and many prolific writers in media and the academe today. To commemorate its 81 years of existence, the fresh, young breed of artists and writers it has on its present roster has a number of activities in store for its 81 st Anniversary celebration.

Entitled �Writing UP Here: UPWC @ 81,� the celebration will formally begin with the opening of the Club's exhibit of works from alumni and present members, on September 23, Tuesday, 10 AM, at the Galeria 2 of the Faculty Center, College of Arts and Letters. On September 24, Wednesday, the Club will hold a three session lecture series at the C.M. Recto Hall of the Faculty Center, featuring young writers who will talk on a variety of topics. On September 26, Friday, the anniversary celebration will be concluded with a Cultural Night, also at the Galeria 2, featuring performances from performing groups Romancing Venus and Alitaptap Storytellers, and other university-based organizations. The winners for the Writers Club's Flash Fiction Writing contest will also be announced during the Cultural Night.

The topics slated for the September 24 lecture series are as follows. �Recreating the Pinay in Philippine Lit� will be at 10 am, and will feature university professors Conchitina Cruz, Roselle Pineda and Anna Felicia Sanchez. �Blogging and the Internet as a New Writing Venue,� featuring UP Writers Club alumni Vlad Gonzales and Adam David, will be at 1 PM. At 3 PM, Dean Alfar with his group The LitCritters, and Philippine Genre Stories publisher Kenneth Yu, will be speaking on �The New Philippine Fantastic.� All of the events in Writing UP Here are open to the public. Writing UP Here is made possible through the support of the National Book Development Board, Philippine Genre Stories, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Belle Basics and Vibal Publishing.

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